After an overnight stay in Colombo the trip started with 3 nights
at Kalu's
Hideway near Udawalawe National Park. A good park for birds
and elephant we were also very lucky to see our first Jungle Cat.
We then moved on to Yala National Park where we stayed 5 nights
at the Cinnamon
Wild Yala. Here we were lucky enough to see Leopard and Sloth
Bear our "target" animals. We also did a quick trip
to Bundala National Park, a nice little reserve - mostly for birds
but there are also macaques, deer and elephant. Our final stay
was at the Fortress
Hotel near Koogala from where we had time for one whale watching
trip. We did manage to see a whale - but sadly not a Blue Whale
which was always going to be a long shot on a one day trip. The
whale we saw was a Bryde's Whale (which we have seen in the Azores)
and there was no real opportunity to get any decent images. We
also had a short trip around the local river system which was
very enjoyable and turned up a few more species. Click on an image
to enter the gallery.